Scenes of Winter

Hello Everyone! I hope 2021 has treated you well thus far – even with the remaining challenges. It has been pretty good here at Planet Nice Crafts. The weather has been mild up to about a week ago and then normal, wintry weather kicked in but still very nice.

As much time as possible has been devoted to crafts and experimental baking. Baking and cooking are somewhat unique because they provide adventure and immediate benefit, something to eat. So if there was a choice between baking or cooking and crafting when the fridge and freezer are quite bare, you can guess which one wins.

Food brings community across the animal kingdom. With the addition of safflower seed to the birdbath, winter visitors have been numerous and all are welcome.

The cardinals have been daily visitors. They provide entertainment and are not demanding so I would put them in the preferred category. I think it is interesting to watch the interaction between the females and males. I have never seen them eat at the same time, it has always been either one or the other. Other bird visitors are chickadees and juncos.

This cute squirrel was spotted, but only once, which is good because their mischievous behavior can turn to being pesty, not preferred in any guest.

I also have a short video of the typical scene when it snows outside the Planet Nice Crafts workspace. 

I wanted to record the video with as little human made noise as possible, it was tough because there is not much of a lapse in car noise outside my door.

For inside adventures, I experimented with a vegan beet pumpkin pie. The star ingredients were beets from the community garden and a homegrown pumpkin. First, they were roasted:

The pumpkin was then mashed and the beets were chopped up as finely as possible along with cashews. Yes cashew nuts, I told you it was an adventure. 

The spices were similar to a conventional pumpkin pie: cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Once mixed, the filling was placed in a crust that was made using vegan butter and had a bit of dark rye flour. Both of these ingredients were new to me. Here is the pie before baking.

Isn’t the color magnificent?!?

Here is after baking:

If you were expecting the taste of a traditional pumpkin pie, I think it would be a turn-off. I really liked it and after it was almost gone, I figured out why. There was no cream so the flavors were undiluted. The beets did give off a strong flavor but as long as you like beets, I think you would be OK. And the pumpkin is still prominent. The dark rye flour paired perfectly with the beets – strength met with strength. The vegan butter worked out well – the crust I would say was crispy rather than flaky.

A craft project that was initiated this month was a box. Yes, you read that correctly – a box. I am making a custom jewelry box from scratch. I took corrugated cardboard and cut the pieces following a rough sketch.

 Then I started gluing them together, which took chunks of time.

It was a success that they all fit together. This is the bottom – the next step will be to cover this bottom with fabric. Stay tuned.

Until then, reach out to planetnicecrafts@gmail.com for any services – Be well and safe!